160. EDGAR ALBERT GUEST: It couldn’t be done

Edgar Albert Guest (1881-1959) was a prolific and popular poet who wrote over 11,000 poems, was syndicated in over 300 newspapers and even had his own radio and TV show. You can read more of his uplifting and feel-good poetry at his Poetry Foundation page.

For those keen-eyed readers out there, you’ll notice that this isn’t the first appearance of my ‘Running Man’. His road to transformation began in a comic I did nearly two years ago featuring a quote by Stephen Fry.

This is just the right motivation at just the right time, as I’ve hit the doldrums of writing.
They’ll say: you can’t write a book of that kind with that sort of character and have it be both a good book and able to sell. So I’m writing the thing that couldn’t be done, and I will keep on doing it!

This was exactly me two years ago! Right down to being slower than a turtle 🙂 I had a quarter life crisis and signed up for the Auckland marathon and it was an amazing experience. I’ve since achieved/grown a fair bit and have gained a lot more clarity about things and I use my marathon experience to remind myself that I can do great things.

I often check out your newest comic and think, “Man, he totally nailed it.”

This one is different. This one is me. 18 months ago I decided to be healthier through the tried and true method of good diet and exercise. In a month I’ll be running my 1st marathon 100 lbs lighter than when I started.

I can’t even begin to describe how perfectly you captured the exhausted exhilaration you feel after accomplishing those goals you once thought were impossible. Pretty soon you start collecting all of those once impossible goals. I look forward to seeing more in this series!

You did it! This has been my go-to poem for inspiration, and weeks ago I had emailed it to you with the request for considering it. Thank you for doing it! It is lovely, and so apt for me – I have just finished my first half marathon, and have changed my lifestyle completely, losing 26 pounds in 8 months. This made my day!

Right in the feels, Gav, right in the feels.
I am an overweight runner, a Clydesdale, myself. 270#, nearly 50 years old. I run trails, and I run street. And this is exactly how I felt before and after my first 5K way back in my 30s. I want to commend you on not making your runner in the last frame a fully fit, thin runner. And even though I never seemed to suffer the slings and arrows of others as much, I still have caught looks of contempt and scorn when I run by younger, fitter people.

Your creations always serve to inspire me, to make me think. But this one, man, right where i live.

I agree with the decision to not making the guy a thin runner at the end of the comic. Results take a lot of time, and one need not wait to reach the end result before plunging in unknown waters. The entire journey needs to be celebrated. I can’t wait for a third running man comic! Love Him! I feel that his real war is not against his weight but rather against his dwindled self esteem. But this is his keystone habit…the one habit that will transform the remaining parts of his life. Cause when you start training, the real results is not just change in body shape but rather the change in the mental state that we are worth the pampering and the self-love and self-respect. The level of happiness and awe derived from reaching our body’s boundaries and pushing it further and further is indeed infinite!

it is all these little well-thought details in the Zen pencils comics that makes me keep coming back for more! More running man comics please! 🙂

Hi!! I love zen pencils!! I started medicine school this year and there is this subject that is really difficult for me. A lot of people told me that it is almost impossible to pass it at the first attempt so I began to worry about it but this comic showed me that it isn’t impossible if you work hard and believe in yourself! These comics always help me look at my problems from a different perspective. Thank you!! Greetings from Argentina 😉

Yayyyy!
I requested this on your FB page over a year ago – I thought you must have forgotten!! Thank you so much Gav for working it in – it’s my favourite poem and really inspiring! Great job you’ve absolutely nailed it 🙂

Oh man, that was me before my first marathon at age 44. Along with a lot of folks, I wasn’t sure I could do it either, but I did!! Travelling to run #20 (my last — so I say) in three weeks — I’ll be reading this over and over again the night before for motivation!

This is inspiring. As a regular reader of this site, I identified this character and I thought “let me finish reading this one and I will look for the previous comic and thankfully, at the end you yourself gave the link to the earlier one.
I used to draw in my 20s and I am happy to say that I have started it again. I have just posted a sketch of my son on my blog, please check it out Gavin. http://www.picturejockey.com/pblog/2014/9/manu-bw.html

You are a phenomenal artist! I came across your work a couple of months ago and added you to my numerous bookmarks. Very few have had me come back to them over and over again though. Your art is just the thing that fuels my motivation to study for the GMAT, and I’m sure it will continue to be my aid long after my test. Thank you 🙂

Thanks everyone 🙂 wow so many of you have run a marathon! Who knew my readers were such a fit bunch? And yes, glad some of you liked the turtle, that was my favourite part to draw. It should be available as a poster soon, the poem’s nearly 100 years old so I don’t see there being any copyright concerns.

I would have to agree with Nick on this particular cartoon in that you totally nailed it. I trained for and completed my first marathon this past April and like the guy in the comic, I had everyone telling me that I couldn’t do it, the dangers of running that long of a distance, and even doubted myself to a certain extent. Several things kept me going, one of which was the “Man in the Arena” by Theodore Roosevelt comic that you posted a couple of years ago. I will tell you that the moment the starting gun went off, all fears went away and the training kicked in. As of this writing, completing the marathon is probably my best and favorite accomplishment.

I just want to say thank you again for this post for reminding me of what it took to complete the biggest race of my life (so far) and that I look forward to what your next comic installment will be!!

This is just what I need right now. I’m actually IN this predicament. I just started graduate school, I just started a half marathon training program, after barely keeping up a 5k every two weeks (with LONG breaks in between). I’m at the point where I feel I just can’t keep up either. And then, you send me this. How long until this can be a poster? Is it too long to be a poster? Will you mind if I arrange it as my desktop background until it’s a poster?

When I was a little girl I read this poem and loved it, and I wrote it out longhand in a spiral notebook and taped the page over my bed. I hadn’t thought of it in years. But I’ve just started running, and over the last decade of my life have lost 110 pounds. This sure does hit a certain place, and the illustrations really lift the sometimes-corny feel of the poem into something both fun AND deeply real. Thank you!

Wow this could not have come at better timing. I was this guy two years ago when I decided to go from couch to marathoner and then after completing the race I let it all slip away. I am back at it again and really needed this to remind me it is possible just keep putting one foot in front of the other. You nailed the exhaustion, the joy of crossing the finish, the hair on the back – it’s totally spot on!!! Thanks for such a great piece!

Gavin, I love it that you are not just illustrating this one, but also subtly providing your own punchlines – really liked the one where he’s holding the broccoli as the illustration for the “and a bit of a grin”. It’s fun 🙂

I was at 265 years ago and I said that I will never let that happen again.
I went up to 245lb a few months ago ( my doctor didn’t like that).
I did everything in your cartoon but I added 15 -20 mile weekend bicycling.
Here in Conyers,GA every street and trails are hills and if you
are able to ho up hill on a bike, then when you go running
then every mile is easy.

Thanks for this. I love reading your comics but this hit the spot. I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovaries and I am required to change my diet. I love food. I enjoy eating. And to suddenly shift to a different lifestyle is difficult for me. But this reminded me that, difficulty can sometimes just be a state of mind.

Hey Gav! I’ll join the chorus of “just-what-I-needed-right-now”…I’m 43 and in reasonable shape, although I have certain habits which need to be gotten under control in order for me to stay that way and improve, especially since I went to the Dr. and got some numbers which aren’t where they should be! I was feeling pretty bummed about the lifestyle adjustments I have to make but this toon really helped to put things in perspective! I can substitute goals and accomplishments for short-term gratification and prove my inner critic completely wrong! Woohoo! Thanks again for your great work and keep it up, you inspire more people than you know!

Inspiring for sure, at first I thought he was just trying to be healthier. Then I found he had set a literal and metaphorical finish line for himself. I am so happy this comic is tackling a major health concern in America.. Lack of motivation, and overabundance of stress eating. My hat (if i had one on) off to you sir.

A friend of mine posted the same quote on facebook and i immediately though of my struggles to get in shape. Then I saw you had a new comic strip up and it was just what I had imagined. Fantastic work as always Gav!

Gav — Great to see that the poster is available so quickly! Any chance that you could make Part 1 of Our Hero’s story available as a poster also? I’d like to be able to hang them side by side, since Part 1 adds so much depth to this tale.

Hi Gav, really loved this one having run a marathon myself and facing a marathon of a task at work too, this one as well as the Stephen Fry one you’ve linked back to will be just what I need for the next few months.

I’d like to weigh in here though and say that the boxes you’ve broken the poem into sort of mess with the metre. I really hope you don’t take this as any negative criticism – I’ve been following this sight since 2012 and I keep coming back to several old ones (The Goddard one being my all time favourite). Just that reading the poem at one go online and reading it here was a big difference, and you’ve done poems before (like Maya Angelou’s) which somehow don’t mess with the metre.

Ah, who am I kidding. So many hardcore feels about this, especially since I’m starting to train for a Tough Mudder in December next year. I think I’ll have to make this my home page on the web browser.

Hi, I love your comics, I think I read them all in one sitting when I found the site. I’m just surprised that you don’t have a share button. I would share the hell out of it and not feel guilty doing it.

This may as well be my story. Not the overweight part. The signing of for the marathon, the struggle, the death of junk food, the blender+green smoothie revolution, the turtle paced marathon. Thank you so much for all the inspiration. This made my day !

Your comics are always great. But today you hit home for me. This time last year I was 310 with a sprang leg that wouldn’t heal up. I had decided to buy a mountain bike. Feburary I bought a road bicycle as well. I eat better and what I eat I enjoy. I feel better. I am up to 30 + miles distance. In the near future I will commute to work. I have lost 60 lbs half way to my goal. I plan to race.

The best and worst part about being a distance runner is that the one saying “It cannot be done” is often yourself. Fourteen half-marathons, one twenty-miler, and a marathon later, as I find myself training for my next marathon in December, I always find myself having to silence that voice. Thank you for this comic, Mr. Than.

This is one of my inspirations, you see I have been over wight for most of my life, now at 51 I topped out at 431 pounds.
Now after 8 weeks with the help of my doctor, I have lost 50 pounds.
When Im feeling down , I just think of this comic and smile.
Chreers.
Dwight

Reminded me of when I took part in my first full marathon. Lots of struggles came in between; I couldn’t fully get used to the weekly training I gave myself, I still could not meet my calculated target timing, my friends and family thought I was crazy and that I should’ve at least taken the half-marathon instead. Furthermore, on the night before the race, I received an email telling me that my university application had been rejected.

Needless to say I wasn’t in the best of spirits when I left my house for the run. But to hell with it, I wasn’t going to let it all go to waste. My first medal meant that much to me, and it still does today.

I just joined a challenge on My Fitness Pal one of the other people shared this with us . It fits so well with all fitness challenges . I can identify with the man . I am glad to have checked your site out I love it all.

Hey Gav, I’m a bit of a late-comer and I just found your site but this poster really struck me. I’m training for a marathon after recovering from a serious injury from years of power-lifting. This poster (just as most of your others) has inspired me to keep going through the pain and never quit. Your work is inspiring and I can’t wait to see what comes next. Thanks for the great work!

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I don’t believe professional athletes should be role models. I believe parents should be role models…. It’s not like it was when I was growing up. My mom and my grandmother told me how it was going to be. If I didn’t like it, they said, “Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.” Parents have to take better control.